Where do we most need AI in healthcare?
To outline the most viable use cases for AI in healthcare today, we
@a16z
interviewed many of the largest healthcare orgs across the country.
Here are the 19 areas we prioritized:
We
@a16z
are excited to announce our investment into
@CounselHealth
, as they offer consumers 24/7 access to personalized medical advice from expert physicians within minutes.
In a world where we can call a (driverless!) car, order a meal, and pay a friend -- all with a tap and a
How can you get your healthtech product to market faster?
One increasingly popular way is B2C2B, or selling directly to end users before the enterprise.
@julesyoo
& I explore how in the 1st of a 5-part series on GTM in digital health by the
@a16z
team:
Science needs better Software.
The good news: waves of talented builders are jumping in to help, enabling biotech to further accelerate how drugs are Discovered + Developed + Distributed.
@JorgeCondeBio
& I "sketch out" Biotech’s Tech moment:
We
@a16z
are thrilled to announce our Series A investment in
@valarlabs
, which is building AI tools to assist oncologists in cancer treatment decisions.
There are roughly 2 million new cancer diagnoses annually in the US alone.
Each diagnosis involves a biopsy of the patient's
Introducing Inductive Bio: an AI company that enables scientists to accelerate new medicine optimization.
Founded by Josh Haimson + Ben Birnbaum with whom we are thrilled to be working together again! They previously launched/led ML at Flatiron Health, where we first teamed up:)
How can you better connect our healthcare system through software?
One increasingly promising way is to take a multi-sided network strategy.
@vintweeta
& I explore *how* with 5 iconic founders in this episode of GTM in digital health by the
@a16z
team:
Who pays for your prescription drugs?
Interesting graphic on the flows between drugmaker <> wholesaler <> pharmacy <> PBM <> insurer... and the consumer from
@lydiaramsey125
@skyegould
@businessinsider
This is literally a map of new startup ideas in healthcare.
These were already worthwhile problems to solve in January... now experiencing once-in-a-generation tailwinds!
It's time to build in healthcare.
1/ We’re living thru The Great Unlock in healthcare - things we thought would take 10+ yrs to play out are now playing out in 2-3. Massive dislocation is changing the very topology of the industry, enabling tech to be wedged into zones that were historically intractable.
What can healthtech founders learn from the most favored public companies?
Beyond growth & profitability, there’s one trait they share: business model “magic.”
Check out the latest
@a16z
piece from me,
@julesyoo
,
@skupor
, &
@mmehta17
for how to amplify it in your business.(1/3)
1/ Scientists need better software tools! 🔬⚡️💻
That’s why
@jorgecondebio
& I are excited to announce that
@a16z
is leading
@biodockai
’s seed financing: founders
@MichaelLee04
&
@nurlybek_m
are building the modern operating system for biological data analysis.
1/ Oncologists should have the best possible tools to select treatments for their patients.
@Valarlabs
is building the AI-enabled data interpretation platform for cancer care.
@vintweeta
& I are excited to share that
@a16z
is leading their seed round!
It's time for a transparent marketplace for healthcare.
@julesyoo
& I are thrilled to announce that
@a16z
is leading the Series A in
@TurquoiseHC
, after also leading the Seed last year, to support
@crsevern
@ageitgey
& team in building that future.
The
@a16z
Bio+Health team has the privilege of supporting bold entrepreneurs building across life sciences & care delivery.
With our new $1.5B bio+health & $5B growth funds, we're continuing to invest at pre-seed, seed, series A, series B, & beyond.
The US healthcare system is on an unsustainable trajectory.
Our healthcare providers experience increasing burnout, our health systems face growing labor shortages, and our economy shoulders ballooning healthcare costs.
Yet our clinicians are being asked to do more with less:
Paying for the $4T healthcare we consume requires better fintech infrastructure, data connectivity, & software tools.
@mandrusko1
@dhaber
@daisydwolf
@julesyoo
outline many of the opportunities we're watching
@a16z
:
1/ The intersection of Healthcare x Fintech = a meaty zone in which to build. But where to start? What makes for a good play? What learnings from general fintech apply? Some thoughts from Team
@a16z
Healthcare x Fintech:
Exciting milestone for Thyme Care: Series B to support many more cancer patients in their care journeys.
Welcome to new partners
@townhallvntrs
and
@ForesiteCapital
and congrats to the
@ThymeCares
team!
High value AI application: Predicting properties of new drug candidates.
Congrats to the Nested Tx and Inductive Bio teams on this successful collaboration showing how new AI models can predict ADME properties and accelerate small molecule drug discovery.
Three Fintech x Healthtech intersection opportunities highlighted by
@julesyoo
&
@dhaber
:
1⃣ consumer payments & lending
2⃣ provider practice enablement
3⃣ unbundling & re-bundling insurance
Hit us
@a16z
up if you're building at this intersection!
.
@julesyoo
and I are very excited about the intersection of Fintech x Healthcare: "As fintech makes its way into healthcare services and software, we see the potential to rewire incentives and remove inefficiencies to pave the way for a more value-oriented healthcare system."
We
@a16z
are thrilled to announce our investment in
@Alchemy_rx
, as they expand access to life-saving medications for underserved communities.
Despite spending over $700B each year on pharmaceuticals in the US, we still face wide disparities in access to essential medicines.
AI is changing the economics of healthcare.
Today, most healthcare companies are not set up to operate efficiently. Consider that publicly traded healthcare companies (excluding pharma) generate $2.6T in revenue and yet turn only ~10% of that revenue into profit. Even more
So very excited for the promotion of
@JenniferHli
to GP. She's a primary reason
@a16z
enterprise investing is what it is, being a key player behind so many deals, our team and our investment philosophy and process. She really is "the best of us".
We live in amazing times: novel medicines are increasingly available for once-untreatable conditions. Yet, our current healthcare delivery and insurance system is not designed for us to purchase and distribute these innovative therapies at scale.
Funniest thing I read today on my flight to
#HLTH2021
@healthbjk
interview by
@nikillinit
, covering EHR data access, HL7, FHIR, new ONC interop rules, data highways, & of course, Verona, WI.
Capability != economics for AI startups historically, but there’s an increasingly strong economic case for generative AI products across verticals (incl. healthcare!!)
@martin_casado
at
@a16z
’s AIR today in SF
Out of stealth: Scribe Therapeutics launches its platform for engineering CRISPR-based genome editing medicines, as well as a $400M+ collaboration with Biogen ✂️✍️💉
Congrats to
@BenjaminLOakes
,
@doudna_lab
& the Scribe team.
14/ Scribe represents a major shift in therapeutics, from a discovery approach to an industrialized means to design treatments that address a large class of diseases – allowing for the rapid development of novel therapeutics to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide.
Every cancer patient deserves a trusted companion guiding them to the highest-value care at each step of their journey.
@a16z
is thrilled to support
@ThymeCares
in making that happen.
@vintweeta
explains perfectly why the "time for Thyme Care is now"!
Next chapter of our
@a16z
healthtech GTM series is about selling through channel partners—PBMs, EHRs, GPOs, TPAs, Plans, etc. If your startup does this, we'd love to hear your perspective and potentially feature you in the blog! Just fill this survey out:
Are you a healthcare biz model nerd? Get a kick out of Health Affairs articles and digital health 10-Ks? Psyched about the future of virtual-first value-based care? Come be a Healthcare Deal Analyst on Team
@a16z
bio+health
How can you distribute your healthtech product more broadly?
One way is by selling through channel partners.
@julesyoo
,
@annie_m_collins
, & I explore how in our next GTM piece by the
@a16z
team:
After 30 years of trial and error, I still essentially have no idea how different foods affect my long-term health. I don't think I'm alone in that, which is why I'm so inspired by the vision of the
@Levels
team
1/
@Jeff_Jordan
and I are excited to announce that
@a16z
is leading
@Levels
$12M Seed Round to bring biowearables into the mainstream and improve metabolic health.
Bio platforms are more productive than ever. But with broader applicability comes great responsibility🕷️:
How to explore all the good your tech can do, with only the finite resources of a startup?
One way: TEAM UP.
@JorgeCondeBio
& I offer tips on how.🚀
What is more valuable than our health?
My
@a16z
partners
@vijaypande
@daisydwolf
start off
#HLTH2022
with a bold prediction: the most valuable company in the world will be a consumer health tech company.
1/We think the biggest company in the world will be a consumer health tech company. Four of the top five biggest companies in the world are consumer companies, and healthcare is one of the nation’s biggest industries.
@daisydwolf
@a16z
@a16zBioHealth
Consumer healthtech builders -- come learn with us!
@daisydwolf
& the rest of the
@a16z
Bio+Health team are arranging conversations to explore open opportunities to help consumers live happier & healthier lives🙂
📣 Calling all consumer health builders! 📣 We
@a16z
are planning events – fireside chats, dinners, & more – to bring together experts & smart folks in the space. Some virtual & some in person (NYC & SF to start). Interested in joining? Fill out this form!
"There are no more worthwhile endeavors than our most brilliant minds taking great risks to improve the world by doing something larger than themselves."
Excited to team up with those building the future 🙌
1/ I’m thrilled to announce our fourth
@a16z
Bio Fund, bringing $1.5B of new capital to invest in the intersection of technology, life sciences & healthcare.
Congrats to Thyme Care on their Series C 💙
This allows Thyme to expand their support to many more cancer patients navigating their care journeys.
Has been such a joy teaming up w/
@rsboon
,
@pbcancerdoc
,
@bjdiephuis
& many more friends at
@ThymeCares
since the Seed. Onwards!
1/ My favorite behind the scenes, cutting room floor gem from
@a16z
’s Bio Eats World podcast yesterday with Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall—the changing perception around partnerships in the biopharma industry since she joined it in 1994:
A trend from exec search firms to be aware of -- more and more they're asking for equity as part of the search, and burying it deep in the docs.
.08 to .1 is not unusual. Which is totally crazy. Be sure to run the math before agreeing to something like this!
We believe our society is poised to benefit greatly from the next major tech revolution — this time in the biotech space. Thanks
@endpts
for sharing the story of
@a16z
’s journey into bio as well as my own path from academia to VC.
What's more important than our health?
If you are looking for an intimidating, regulated, complex, but mission critical problem to solve: come to healthcare!
Hey Tech, It’s Time To Build. In Healthcare.
In the past few months, the founders of Instacart, Spotify, and Coinbase have all started new healthcare companies. Why are these seasoned tech founders jumping into tech-driven healthcare?
1/
Research in artificial intelligence is increasing at an exponential rate. Even experts struggle to keep up with everything new.
So we've curated a list of 3rd-party resources we’ve relied on to get smarter about modern AI, that we're calling "AI Canon." 👇
1/ Last month,
@vijaypande
and I predicted a consumer health company will be the biggest company in the world (‼️). This invoked lots of **feelings** 🤯. This month,
@julesyoo
and I dive into specific areas of consumer health where we see opportunity. A 🧵:
My parents lost a son due to complications related to sepsis on Sep 12, 1985 before I was born. Sadly, too many families have stories like this.
So I'm particularly inspired by the results of
@bayesianhealth
's prospective study on their early warning system for sepsis:
Bezos 2018 letter puts experiments like Haven into context.
I'm excited for the new healthcare products that will be built on the hard-earned learnings from this experiment.
Patients deserve transparent prices for the care they need. 🏥💲
New common-sense regulations are finally unlocking access to prices for all.⚖️🔓
@TurquoiseHC
is building a provider-payer marketplace to enable fair competition in favor of empowered consumers of healthcare.🙌⚡️
The hardest problems in AI are in bridging the worlds of bits and atoms.
@DaphneKoller
sharing why she committed to building an AI company in the life sciences: to deliver better medicines to people who need them.
At
@a16z
AIR in conversation w/
@vijaypande
Great news that
@a16z
– one of the world’s leading tech investment firms, is opening a new base here in London.
Another huge vote of confidence in the UK as a place to build and grow tech businesses of the future.
We call it a healthcare "system", but to a patient leaving a doctor's office, it can often feel like you're on your own.🤒
Thankfully
@memorahealth
is building the modern OS for healthcare, connecting silos of care into a continuous, proactive, & intuitive care experience.⚡️📱😀
1/ Today, we’re excited to announce a $10.5M financing led
@a16z
! Memora Health is building an operating system to help modernize how our largest healthcare organizations deliver care.
Thatch is helping businesses of all sizes give their employees better health benefits for less money. Today they announced their $38M Series A financing, and we
@a16z
couldn't be more excited for the more equitable healthcare future they are building.
It has been such a joy
Developing more life-saving medicines requires expanding our clinical trial infrastructure. 🏗️🔬🧬
Topography is activating new capacity by empowering clinicians to conduct A+ research at their practices.🛠️💻🏥
@julesyoo
articulates why we
@a16z
are so excited to support! 🙌
0/ Among the many mighty healthcare supply-demand mismatch problems, one of the most vexing is the low % of physicians participating in clinical trials, while most trials enroll insufficient patients, let alone a diverse enough set of patients representative of the population.
How are healthcare leaders evaluating & deploying AI solutions today?
We
@a16z
interviewed many of the largest healthcare orgs to highlight how their eval criteria for AI solutions might inform how entrepreneurs bring their products to market.
Benchmarking the cash you burn for every $1M of net ARR you add can help you understand the efficiency of your growth -- regardless of the market environment.
To compare, here are burn multiples by stage analyzed by
@DavidGeorge83
,
@justin_kahl
, & our
@a16z
growth team:
We’re excited to announce our $400M seed fund.
Seed has always been a core part of our strategy. This fund underscores our commitment to founders on this leg of the journey and to seed investing as first class motion for the firm.
Paying for healthcare is painful, but it shouldn't be.
Thatch Health is on a mission to fix it, both for employers & employees.
@julesyoo
& I
@a16z
are thrilled to be partnering with Chris, Adam, & the entire
@thatch_ai
team on simplifying the healthcare financial experience.🧵
Last week at the J&J Data Science & Digital Health Symposium, I enjoyed discussing how integrated cloud systems of record + data flows from virtual-first care delivery rails can together unlock R&D throughput.
New year, new job?! We are hitting the ground running in 2022, building and scaling Octant’s Software team with our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th team hires. It's a good time to consider a career as an Octonaut! Check out:
Today, I'm excited to discuss the opportunities for AI to enable 10x better experiences, economics, and outcomes of healthcare at
#jpm2024
with John Rootenberg, MD
@Roche
, Steve Mutkoski
@Microsoft
, Megan Callahan at Welsh Carson, and our hosts Alya Sulaiman + Anirudh Goel at the
Github for healthtech?
@Jonathan_Bush
of Zus Health joins
@julesyoo
on Bio Eats World to talk about the history and future of infusing tech with healthcare.
Biology is hard. BUT - when you're lucky enough to be around pioneers like
@srikosuri
@rhomsany
- it's hard not to be optimistic about humanity's ability to deal w/ whichever disease nature throws at us. 📖💻🔬💥
"Every scientist will have an AI assistant/collaborator/partner that will greatly expand their scope of scientific research and achievement. Every artist, every engineer, every businessperson, every doctor, every caregiver will have the same in their worlds."...if we allow it.
"Genomics is currently a laboratory testing-based industry, but in the future it will look very much like an information industry" Sean George, Invitae CEO
Congrats to
@ciitizen
+
@Invitae
teams on joining forces to empower patients with their combined genomic + clinical data
We are thrilled to announce that Ciitizen and
@Invitae
are joining forces to advance the future of empowering patient control of their medical data.
Click here to read the full statement from our founder
@anilsethiusa
:
“Well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value” - Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865
My fam
@websun23
,
@ArifNathooMD
& the entire
@KomodoHealth
all-star team accelerating their vision to *learn* from every single interaction in our healthcare system 🔥🔥🔥
Thrilled to announce we’ve closed our
#SeriesE
round led by Tiger Global and joined by
@cascapital
. Get ready: we are extending our 7-year lead, executing on our vision to transform healthcare, and accelerating our market impact. 🚀
"We do it for the team" is an
@a16z
core value & also
@sarahdingwang
's middle name.
1 of my fondest memories
@a16z
is my 1st deal team, when I got to work w her (&
@julesyoo
+
@JorgeCondeBio
!). Sarah is the ultimate teammate, & I continue to learn so much from her.🤩
Go Sarah!
Some very exciting
@a16z
news today. I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve promoted
@sarahdingwang
to General Partner for the Growth Fund. More below on why…and welcome Sarah to this new role, I’m proud to call you my partner!
Exciting day
@ThymeCares
: Dr. Brad Diephuis joins as CBO.
Looking fwd to partnering w/
@bjdiephuis
as he brings his learnings as a physician, CMS policymaker, entrepreneur, engineer, & cancer survivor to Thyme.
Congrats to
@rsboon
,
@pbcancerdoc
, & entire TC team!
@vintweeta
Meet our new Chief Business Officer, Dr.
@bjdiephuis
. The former CMMI advisor will oversee Thyme Care’s business strategy and push forward our mission to change the value-based oncology care landscape. We are incredibly excited to welcome him to the team.
Big news
@a16z
this week - my colleague
@julesyoo
promoted to GP.
I’ve already learned a ton from her over the last year and am excited for all the work we’ll do together supporting healthcare software entrepreneurs in the future!
‼️ Biotech builders --> How do you best navigate the 3 acts of executing a biotech BD deal? ‼️
🧭🗺️🔬 My brilliant
@a16z
colleagues
@beckypferdehirt
&
@JorgeCondeBio
offer a guide, from their experiences in the biotech BD trenches.
1/ Business development is essential for many biotech startups, but there’s a wide chasm between wanting to partner and signing on the dotted line.
@JorgeConde
and I offer a beginners recipe book for the sausage making of a biotech BD deal
Would you rather text your doctor now or wait 40 days to see your PCP in person?
It's no surprise that the fastest-growing care setting isn't the hospital or home but the mobile phone📱. Meanwhile, clinicians are overloaded with patient messages, leading to burnout and staffing
Mental healthcare should be accessible to everyone.
Grateful to the
@try_headway
team for leading that future through a software platform connecting patients + therapists + insurers.
And glad
@a16z
has the opportunity to support.
Thrilled that
@try_headway
has launched in 11 states & raised a Series B led by
@skupor
at
@a16z
We're looking for great people to join us in our mission of rewiring mental healthcare for access and affordability.
See roles here !
@PearlHealth_
has partnered with
@Walgreens
to expand access to high-quality, value-based care. We’re excited to work with the Walgreens team to enable primary care providers to deliver proactive, whole-person care in the communities they serve.
2/ Today, highly-trained drug researchers spend hours analyzing microscope images - essentially one by one. It’s a painfully repetitive process that creates bias & error.
@Biodockai
’s AI software platform automates months of image analysis in minutes.
I am excited to announce our partnership with
@GeisingerHealth
.
@TomorrowHealth1
is thrilled to be working work with patients, physicians, and medical suppliers to improve home healthcare for over half a million GHP members.
We want modern healthcare experiences.
@memorahealth
is empowering leading healthcare organizations with the modern digital health tech stack.
Excited to see all that
@mnvsevak
& the Memora team will build with the added fuel!
Congrats to the
@memorahealth
team on closing a latest $40m financing to fuel a next chapter of growth 🙌🏼
We
@a16z
led prior seed round; thrilled to continue backing
@mnvsevak
+ team as they bring smart automation at scale to our largest healthcare orgs!
If you would like to attend the next one, join the
@bitsinbio
slack community👇🏽.
Meetups in Boston, DC, LA, London, NYC, SD, SF, & more.
CC:
@nlarusstone
Better saas + fintech tools for care delivery!
@PearlHealth_
's provider enablement software & specialty risk marketplace empowers PCPs to deliver higher quality care at a lower cost in collaboration with financially-aligned specialty care networks.
@a16z
In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing our interviews with these healthcare leaders, as well as some GTM tactics on pricing, packaging, & defensibility for AI products.
For the full post, check out:
@daisydwolf
,
@vijaypande
,
@julesyoo
,
@a16zBioHealth
"We are entering a brave new world of curative, permanent, and record-breakingly expensive therapies"
-
@JorgeCondeBio
on the mindset shifts needed for valuing cures, and potential financial & regulatory frameworks to distribute those cures broadly
Introducing: end-to-end 83(b) filing. Save time and money on the cumbersome early exercise process. Employees can now complete and submit the required form through Carta. We’ll send it to the IRS so they don’t have to.
Active week for
@a16z
healthcare portfolio!
1/ Congrats to
@jdesai01
and the whole
@PatientPing
team for a great milestone along their path to building the definitive operating system for care transitions!
Healthcare is burdened with tedious, repetitive, error-prone tasks that drive administrative waste, worker burnout, & suboptimal patient care.
Tennr is bringing AI automation to healthcare & other complex industries, and we're excited to partner with them on their mission.
Thrilled to announce
@a16z
is leading Tennr’s Series A 🚀📠🎉.
@TreyHolterman
and team are redefining what’s possible with automation, while staying true to solving tangible problems for customers.
👇
@kshenster
@JayRughani
and I share why we’re excited